Principal Motion Planning Engineer, Warehouse Robotics
Overview
Pickle Robot seeks a Principal Motion Planning Engineer to own the technical vision and architecture for planning, manipulation, navigation, and control software powering autonomous unload robots. This senior IC role tackles the hardest algorithmic problems, sets engineering standards across the robotics organization, and multiplies team impact through technical leadership. In this role, you will ship production-grade Python and C++ for safety-critical systems, mentor engineers, and drive architecture decisions. The role requires deep expertise in motion planning, trajectory optimization, and contact-aware control, with impact across deployment sites and customer roadmaps.
What You'll Do8
- 1Own the technical vision and architecture for the motion planning and controls stack, including manipulation, navigation, and safety-critical control.
- 2Tackle hardest algorithmic problems: RRT, path and trajectory optimization, nonlinear optimization, and contact-aware control, turning research prototypes into production.
- 3Set engineering standards and technical strategy across the robotics organization, driving decisions that unblock major customers and multi-year roadmaps.
- 4Act as a force multiplier by mentoring engineers, reviewing designs, and guiding on the toughest problems without direct management.
- 5Define and maintain architecture, interfaces, and system documentation for the planning and controls stack.
- 6Analyze field failures and partner with engineering, test, and deployment teams to design autonomous recovery that improves reliability.
- 7Establish regression tests, benchmarks, and metrics to prevent regressions and focus team on high-impact work.
- 8Write production-grade Python and C++ for real-time robotics, shipping high-leverage components.
Requirements7
- 18+ years building robotics software with a record of shipping complex systems as a senior IC.
- 2Expert-level experience developing motion planning and control for real-world robots in safety-critical, real-time systems.
- 3Mastery of motion planning: RRT, path and trajectory optimization, numerical optimization, and contact-aware control.
- 4Expert-level Python and C++.
- 5Professional fluency in English.
- 6Experience with ROS/ROS2, Git, Linux, and numerical optimization libraries.
- 7Experience architecting testing/CI and benchmarking for robotics.
Salary Insight
$150 - $170k per year
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